ICYMI – j-hope returned from his military enlistment in October last year. As soon as 2025 started, he got right back to releasing new music. These include two singles titled LV Bag (by Don Toliver, “Speedy” and j-hope, ft. Pharrell Williams) and Sweet Dreams (ft. Miguel). Last week, he dropped his third single of the year, MONA LISA. He has also embarked on a worldwide concert tour.

MONA LISA is a straightforward hip-hop and R&B track. The word ‘straightforward’ is the key phrase to note. Execution-wise, I thought the song was fine. j-hope does a great job with his sing-rap delivery and the trap-based instrumentation was very clean. MONA LISA does have some ring to it, enough to make the song earwormy for some. But not me, unfortunately. There is just nothing exciting in MONA LISA. And that is the consistent theme I get from the song. Everything in the track, including the aforementioned delivery by j-hope and the instrumentation, feels very safe, lacks excitement and fails to do anything to grab my attention etc.. At the end of the day, I found MONA LISA to be a listen once and never again. There is just nothing enticing enough in MONA LISA that gets me coming back for more.

The music video is also relatively simple. Shot in a very contemporary art gallery, the video features j-hope and his dancers performing the song’s choreography. The location makes perfect sense, given the lyrics likens a special someone to a masterpiece. As for the choreography, it is pretty good and complements the straightforward hip-hop sound MONA LISA features. j-hope is quite flirty throughout the routine, which helps make the video engaging. Its not like they could have relied on the song for this). I enjoyed the one-shot-esque style of the video.

Song – 7/10
Music Video – 8/10
Overall Rating – 7.4/10